


Bugs on Terra Nova

by Damceon



Series: Character Backstories [10]
Category: Gamer Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:40:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23256334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Damceon/pseuds/Damceon
Series: Character Backstories [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1672036





	1. Intermission

**Prologue**

The winds buffeted the gargantuan dropship as it roared toward it's destination. The nine passengers sat strapped in to their flight chairs. Ari was squirming against the restraints, complaining about how restrictive they were. Rizon was debating the possibility of tieing a tow cable to the dropship with Miro, one of the Marines, while Max was testing his luck with an electronic card game he picked up during his last visit to Port Arthur. The three remaining marines- Scofield, "Scorch", and the Sarge- were checking their gear and comparing scars they'd received over the past cycle.

Only Jack remained still, lost in thought about the impending "mission". It had taken him the entire cycle to get hold of the information about his wife, when he finally did it wasn't quite how he expected. After exhausting all of his own contacts he had managed to get a hold of the name of a "retired" SRID agent living in Khayr-ad-Din. The guy was supposed to be SRID's eyes and ears in that corner of the badlands which meant he was probably responsible for the initial abduction. Jack had half a mind to kill the man just for that. Turns out he didn't have to. After spending last season tracking this guy down, Jack found him in a flat in Elayu. The guy was stone dead when Jack arrived, dead of a heart attack...or at least that's what the news feed said. Jack was able to rip some information off of the guys personal computer, though it had been scrambled all to hell. Rizon had his sister help out with decoding the mess....Well Jenna 6532 helped out really. Then there it was, staring Jack right in his own two eyes.

The prison was located just on the wrong side of the bug containment zone near Raleigh. Before the invasion, the place was used as some sort of re-education center. The southerners were using it to test out some of the Alliance's tricks on prisoners. That didn't necessarily bode well, but it meant they wouldn't have killed her....just scrambled her brain a little bit.

It didn't take much convincing to get the Marines involved. All Jack really needed to say was "Inside the bug zone" and they were in. Everybody else had been almost as easy, though it did take some convincing to get Ari away from the Protoss. Not that they were too attached to her...much the other way around as matter of fact.

"Two minutes to containment zone" The pilot's voice came over the speaker with a twinge of stress in his tone.

"You heard 'im boys! Get the toys and make ready for play time. No need to wash up, this sandbox is gonna get nasty." Sarge's voice came through his helmet speaker with the ferocity of a mad dawg. At once his men were on the move, grabbing weapons and checking each other's gear to make sure they were secure.

"Hell Sarge, why we doin this again? Sounds like a lost cause if you ask me." Miro's voice cut through the hustle. Sarge was on him in a second lifting the marine off the deck with the help of his suit's actuators.

"We doin this cause I said we're doin it. Nobody deserves to be left to the bugs like this. 'Specially nobody's wife." Sarge had lifted his helmet visor so the trooper could see his face. Something in the man's eye disturbed Jack though he couldn't figure out what it was. "Why do you think your life's so important anyway. We got ourselves a debt to pay, and I'll be damned if some roach is gonna collect on mine. Now MOVE IT TROOPER!!!"

"Get ready for some chop." The pilot's voice was even, almost emotionless as the dropship began juking erratically. Explosions could be heard through the ship's thick skin.

"Man I hope I know what I'm getting myself into." Jack whispered


	2. Azrael Rizon - Back into Bug Territory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lunatic Badlander, Azrael Rizon, gets back into the shit.

-1 The Terran dropship was buffeted from either side; the hull lurching against Rizon's back and threatening to jar him loose of his harness. He checked his emergency parachute one last time while listening to the chatter of the pilot over the communications radio.

"ETA to drop zone: thirty seconds." Rizon began counting in his mind, his heart quickened in anticipation.

The Sarge and one of the marines hefted themselves off the wall in their powered exo-armor, the magnetic boots' _clank-clank_ rising above the howl of the wind outside and the shuddering of the armor plates of the ship. They opened the bay door and the massive plate of metal was immediately sheared off by some unseen hand.

_Automated turrets... or Flyers._ Rizon smiled inside his helmet, "That's gonna take some time to fix, Jack."

The Sarge snorted, not letting Jack cut in to answer. "Just a door. Let's go, maggots! Move, _move, MOVE!_ "

The last two marines lumbered forward and hopped from the lip of the deck out into open sky, followed by Sarge and Scofield. Rizon was already free of his harness when he noticed Ari fumbling to untangle herself. He only shook his head as he charged for the door.

He could hear Jack shouting to cast out the rappelling lines as Rizon kicked off the deck and hurtled into empty air. One hundred meters below, jungle and bug-moss made a sudden leap toward him. His suit didn't have the heavy plating, powered actuators, or jump-jets as the exo-armor of the Terran Marines... he was a Terra-Novan... a Badlander... and he belonged to the storm...

The medium flak armor of his suit was newer, crafted by Port Arthur's machinists to his specifications to incorporate the life-giving desert suit technology so integral to survival in the deep desert of his beloved home... and he'd had them add another modification as well... a thin, durable membrane that stretched from mid-forearm to mid-calf and acted like a glider's wings during free-fall. It wasn't enough to save him from certain death if his own abilities failed him, but it made for easier maneuvering during a dive. The ground sped upward to meet him, the wind screaming by with the heavy _thud_ of the anti-aircraft guns of the automated turrets. Rizon concentrated the energies around him, feeling the sweat beading on his forehead only to be swept into the collection system of his suit.

_I love this!_ He thought, not for the first time. It was only a one hundred meter drop, but adrenaline made time move slower in his mind, and his focus brought the energy he needed to him at the instant he needed it most. He slowed, a scant few meters above the ground, the storm crackling in his blood as it hefted his weight against the pull of the world. Rizon touched down with little more force than stepping from a one-meter ledge. He crouched, absorbing the drop easily and hefting his assault carbine to his shoulder in search of bugs.

...

"One of these days, you're going to kill yourself doing that." She'd said, running up breathless and smiling. Rizon remembered her face, if not her name.

"Can I help it if I feel the storm calling me?" Rizon had lifted his visor to grin at her on the dunes beneath the jutting stone rise behind him. It was a dangerous drop... perhaps twenty meters.. but he'd only suffered a few scrapes and bruises the few times he's lost his concentration during a "test".

The new suit was everything he'd hoped for, and so was she. Badlands through and through... he loved the way she smiled, the way she fought... and they way she moved under the blankets during the deep chill of night. Had it only been a week? Ari was on a salvaging run with Jack and Max, but Rizon had taken a few days off to test out his new body armor.

_What was her name?_

The scream over the radio in his helmet wasn't warning enough... Blood and smoke filled his visor as he stumbled over the wreckage of her Elan.

_What was her name?_

...

"Let's move." Rizon heard Sarge's gravelly voice on the radio, slapping him into the moment.

The team was there, ready on the ground as the dropship heeled down out of the sky... smoke trailing from an engine.

"Damn." Sarge growled. "I liked that ship."

Rizon could almost hear Jack's heart breaking as well. Rizon had more love for the pilot, but he couldn't say he knew the man well... a ship was just a ship. Men were harder to replace.

"Ari, you have point." Jack motioned with one hand. Rizon followed Ari from a half-dozen meters as the rest of the group fell in behind.

Slicing their way into the prison compound proved less difficult than some other work they'd done, but Rizon didn't like the look once they were inside. Bug-moss was scattered outside, but it hadn't been everywhere. Rizon had been hoping that the bugs hadn't managed to breach the cell blocks yet...

_So much for that._

Moss was scattered over lights and ceilings, walls and floor. Bugs had to be near, but they didn't find any. Rizon didn't bother to mention the blood-sprays on the walls or the bullet-gouges... they were easy enough to see and everyone already knew they'd walked into a death trap. Jack was hoping to find his wife. The marines didn't need more reason... neither did Rizon.

The marines had staid outside to secure the entrance and try to raise the pilot on their communications. Inside the prison compound, Ari and Jack were opening doors and following the maps Jack had gotten. Rizon knew why he was there. He and Max could both sense the stronger bugs... the Dart-Snakes and such... and Rizon had learned much in the ways of killing the bugs. He wasn't very likely to let his friends die alone.

_Or at all, if it can be helped._

...

The cell-block rumored to hold living prisoners (and possibly Jack's wife) was sealed. Ari got to the door and hesitated.

"Hey, Rizon...?" Ari's voice trembled. "You know those seven words you never want me to say...?"

Rizon could think of plenty of words he didn't want Ari saying. His body was cool inside the suit, but he knew he was sweating.

"Which ones are those, again?"

"I've got a..." Ari said deliberately. Rizon almost instantly echoed her.

"I've got a bad feeling about this?" Rizon smiled to himself. _Great, now I've done it._ "Get the door unlocked, Ari, I'll go in first."

He could _feel_ them on the other side of the door.

"Max..." Rizon whispered in the stillness of the corridor. "How many?"

Max's arms drooped with the weight of the combat shotgun he'd borrowed from the marines, his eyes rolling up in his head for a few seconds. Rizon's pulse quickened as Max straightened and looked at him.

"Five... two human." His fingers echoed his words, Jack nodded to Ari.

When Rizon opened the door, a thick carpet of mist oozed out from the cell block, the heady rush of the storm swelled in Rizon's nose and he could feel the sickening pulse of bugs of power. Here, the bug moss covered much of the floor and many of the now-dead lights in the ceiling. The spongy mass beneath their feet muffled their footfalls and seemed to soak in their voices as well.

"There's a human there." Max pointed in a direction, down one of the many branches off the main trunk of the cellblock. Jack nodded and motioned Rizon forward into the darkened passage.

...

"Half-starved and ready to die of thirst." Rizon lowered the light on his rifle so that the cell's occupant could stare bleary-eyed into the gloom at them. "What's your name?"

"Muh... nuh...?" The man's eyes focused slowly, squinting against the light and his wan face shivered with a chill Rizon knew from the deep desert. "Name...? Gray. I'm Gray."

_Gray Half-Dead._ Rizon scowled inside his helmet.

"What did you do?" Issa's voice was cold and mechanical... clever Issa, always trying to learn, even when the knowing didn't matter.

_He's human._ Rizon thought. _What difference does it make, anymore? His life belongs to us._

"Jack, we should get him out of there, quick-like." Rizon whispered while Ari and Issa tried fruitlessly to pry the past from its cold dark grave.

"Let's get him out." Jack agreed. "Ari, with me, Rizon and Issa watch our flank."

It took a few minutes for Jack to use the branch controls to unlock the cell, the small control room near-black in the failing lights. Rizon used his knife to lever the plasteel door open a sliver, then hooked his fingers through the gap and slid the panel open by centimeters until Gray was able to wriggle through the opening. Jack gave the man a bit of water and a ration bar, was nearly forced to cuff the man senseless when Gray's thirst drove him to gulp the liquid in great mouthfuls.

_Just what we need, a sickly wretch._ Rizon frowned beneath his visor, but looked at Ari.

...

Jon was the other human. Rizon looked at Max as Jack was connecting a fuel bottle to his micro-torch. Max did not need to see Rizon's face to know his searching gaze. Jack could feel Rizon's doubt, but the only answer he gave it was a soft curse as he readied to begin cutting the plasteel panel loose.

_If his wife is no longer human..._ Rizon shook his head, stepping away from the door and back toward the trunk. _Perhaps she was taken away before..._

"Something's coming." Max warned, pointing toward the trunk hallway. Rizon nodded.

"Issa, with me. Ari, Gray, cover Max and Jack." Rizon moved to the trunk and looked around the corner.

The tail was all he saw... all he needed to see as it slithered into another branch further down the trunk. Issa came up beside him, her machine gun shifting heavily in her grip. Rizon wasn't sure he liked her carrying such a cannon in this small a space, but it had it's uses.

"We've got a snake down here." Rizon whispered into the comm. He was talking to Jack and Max, but the Sarge answered.

"So kill the damn thing!" The Sarge's bark crackled on the radio, punctuated by the roar of automatic fire. "We're a little busy up here!"

"You got it, Sarge." Rizon smiled to himself, looked back at Issa as his comm. clicked off. "You heard the man."

"I got your back." Issa nodded as they stepped into the hallway.

...

Rizon could hear Jack's torch hissing and popping the plasteel door to slag, making a molten seam so the panel could be wrenched open and Jon released from his cell. It was a distant sound, but Rizon's ears were trained to listen for the faintest rumbling of the storms of the desert, of far-off engines from rovers... the whisper of wind on the dunes during calmer days...  
  


He felt the chittering before he heard it, the stomach-turning sensation of the storm filling his nose and lungs. It was more than a smell, but he could never smell it... it twisted in his gut and told him it was there...

"There!" Issa's voice barked the instant before her machine-gun roared to life. Rizon had only enough time to duck to the side, but a second serpent made itself known.

A great serpentine tail led into a massive torso, from which two spindly limbs protruded that ended in wicked, scythe-like blades ridged with barbs. The head drew up like a dawg's face, with skag mandibles instead of the tri-fang, but the skull swept back in a massive shield of bone frill that protected the long, broad neck that jutted forward from the shoulders. The tiny eyes, filled with malicious intellect, seemed to shine in the relative darkness.

Rizon felt the impact on his shoulder, a barb from the second serpent. His flesh began to warm beneath the flak plating and he knew his suit was leaking water. Wheeling below the arc of Issa' machine-gun, Rizon stood at Issa's back and fired on the serpent that closed with them first.

It surged forward, its massive claw lashing out in an effort to split Rizon in half.

The world turned red, the passage exploding with light and pain as the bone blade tore a rent in his armor and down his chest. From his right shoulder to the middle of his lower abdomen, his suit was split open, a trench carved in his flesh. His ribs were laid bare where the cut was deepest but the muscle wall of his stomach kept his intestines from spilling on the floor. He could still move, but his right arm tingled strangely through the pain. He drew on the energy and commanded the storm to force the serpent into stillness as he fired again. Lurching aside, the beast slipped his grasp and bullets skittered off its hide. From somewhere else, the battle raged in flashes of light and shrieks of fury. Ari appeared before him, somehow taller than he'd ever seen her.

_Brave, stupid little brother-sister._ Rizon smiled, nearly slipping in the growing pool of his own blood at his feet. But the serpent balked, leaning down to glower into Ari's face and chitter at her venomously.

Rizon saw the opening... only a heartbeat, but his arms came up with the carbine... the barrel less than a meter from the serpents bony face. And Rizon's right arm spasmed as he tried to squeeze the trigger. The bullets chewed into the bone plate and gouged the serpent's face, forcing it back a handsbreath. Another bone dart belched at Rizon, but he'd been waiting for it.

((Rizon actually attacked the Hydralisk with his hatchet, catching it in the face for a light wound as it leaned in toward Ari…))

He danced aside, only fast enough to save his skin as the barb caught the armor on his left thigh and yanked him off balance again... and Issa's machine-gun ripped the snake to pieces. Her face was pale and drawn, twisting with pain. Rizon saw the barb in her, wondering if the poison would mean her end. Blood oozed out from the wound. Even Gray had been struck in the belly. Rizon looked at the ruin of his suit and the gaping slash in his chest.

_That's not so bad as poison._ He chuckled to himself and grimaced. He began carefully loosening the clasps, straps, and plates from his body.

"Ari... help me." He whispered, tasting blood in his mouth. A gurgling whistle acompanied his breathing, and he noticed a few ribs had been hewn clean through, exposing the pink, fleshy mass of a lung beneath. That didn't look good... the whistle meant a puncture, besides. He flexed his right arm feebly, feeling the tingling numbness and the burning agony by mixed measures.

"Ari." He choked out the name, half curse, half prayer. The girl snapped out of her stupor to look at him with wide, frightened eyes.

"You're hurt." Her voice was soft, dazed.

"Thanks, I could use your help." Rizon peeled away the last bits of the upper portion of his suit. Too much water and blood... too much torn and broken... his suit would need work to get back into use... but so would he.

"We're coming down to you." Sarge barked over the comm. Rizon looked down at his helmet as Ari began pouring medi-powder on his wound and pressing gauze against the still-seeping gash. She did the best she could, wrapping his chest tightly and using all the gauze in Rizon's personal medikit and an extra roll from her own. The outer-most layers of gauze were only just turning crimson as they finished putting his armor back on. He turned off the reclamation unit on the suit, hoping it would help stem the loss of water from its caches. Blood and water leaked from the tear in the suit, soaking the outside of his bandages as his own wound finished soaking them from the inside.

Sarge, Scorch, and Scofield stormed into the cell-block as Jon was pulled from his cell. Rizon let Jon borrow his pistol and then handed his carbine to Gray. Gray seized the weapon gratefully and returned Jack's pistol.

"I want both of those back." Rizon slurred, struggling to keep up with the marines.

_Miro's not here._ Rizon recalled dully. The patch-job Ari had given him was holding, but only just. He was still losing blood, he was sure... and the whistling wasn't likely to stop without a surgeon's touch. _Maybe I'll catch up to him in Hell._

It was an odd thought, Rizon knew. The Badlands had its share of the religious and the blaspheming... he was more the latter. He believed in the Storm and the spirits of the honored dead, for whatever they were worth. The Storm was everything, though. Ever since the Blue Citadel, it had been in his blood. Sometimes, he thought he heard it whispering to him... maybe the way Max's own Storm whispered. The Protoss had a different name for it... even the Marines and his fellow Terra-Novans had given it different names.

_But to me, it's the Storm._ Rizon nodded wearily as they came to a halt at the door to the motor pool.

"What's inside, Max?" Rizon leaned heavily on Ari. Gray and Issa looked to be faring worse than he was, perhaps the poison _would_ be their end.

"Bugs." Max's voice was certain, grim.

"You heard 'im." The Sarge snarled. Scofield hefted his cannon and Scorch primed his torches by sending up a little puff of flame.

Rizon fell back, unslinging his Dartand... the personally fitted sniper rifle he'd purchased more than a cycle ago. It felt light and smooth in his hands, clumsy though his right arm was. He checked the length for signs of stress... a scuff here, a scratch there... but the barrel was smooth and unblemished. The scope was still firmly rooted atop the rifle and adjusted easily at his touch. The door to the motor pool opened and the world went mad.

...

Rizon fired several shots over the wave of bowsers, trying to wound or kill any of the serpents he could see. His shots glanced off armored hide or missed outright, but the marines were pressing through the door, cleaving a wedge into the surging mass of bowsers and leaving a pocket of stillness in their wake. Rizon had no choice but to fall in behind them or be lost as the wedge moved away from the door. Scorch's flames drove the bowsers and snakes back behind many of the vehicles, a narrow strand of empty slab opening wider between the group and an armored personnel carrier. Jack loped off toward a main battle tank and Gray shambled not far behind.

"Get in the APC!" Max shouted over the gunfire, pointing briefly as he charged forward.

They moved haltingly, staggered by the grudgingly retreating line of bugs and the decrepit advance of the wounded. The marines trudged forward mechanically, but the Terra-Novans moved with all the haste they could find. Rizon half-fell on the ramp into the APC, stumbling forward from his own weight before catching himself against the interior of the hulking transport truck. Ari was already manning the turret controls, frantically trying to bring the guns to bear against the press of bugs.

Seeing their quarry on the verge of escape, the bugs surged forward recklessly, many into the waiting and eager flames of Scorch. A dozen bowsers or more, Rizon did not have time to count, had tackled Scofield and dragged him to the ground. Rizon leveled his Dartand at the fallen marine... he'd seen this before... it would be a mercy to end it quickly... he just needed to steady the rifle.

"Get us the hell outta here!" The Sarge bellowed as he stomped backward into the APC and mashed a leaping bowser's face with his hand. Rizon squeezed the trigger, but he never knew if his mercy had meant anything... Scofield had never screamed.

_From eight, two._ Rizon's mind was growing as numb as the fingers of his right hand. _And the pilot dead, too, most likely._

The APC jumped forward and Rizon steadied himself against the bench seat before he strapped in. The Sarge and Scorch waited as the rear door closed, slaughtering what bugs they could before the armored plating blocked their shots. Rizon looked wearily around the inside of the APC, taking a mental count. Issa was in the turret seat, Ari was sulking on the bench seat near her. He'd seen Gray follow Jack into the tank... and Max was driving the APC. The other man... Jon... he hadn't seen him at all.

_I liked that gun._ Rizon frowned thoughtfully, his eyes falling to the mess of his chestplate. _Bastard probably got himself killed._

...

The vehicles stopped briefly at the wreck of the dropship. The pilot was dead and there was nothing they would be able to do for the ship with any sort of haste, so they left it where it fell. Rizon had moved over to the tank during the stop, offering to drive for Jack. Gray was thankful for the reprieve, choosing to seek what rest he could find in the back of the APC.

"You know, Rizon..." Issa's voice came over the comm. as they resumed their trek to the containment border. "You should really let Jack drive."

"I'm not a gunner." Rizon's voice was as flat as it could be, given the pain. _Besides, Issa, Jack's better on those guns than anyone I know._

"But you're wounded." Issa insisted. Rizon wanted to slap her. _You're wounded, too, Issa!_

"All the more reason I shouldn't be manning the _guns_." Rizon rasped.

"Ignore it." Jack said aloud from behind him at the gunner's station. "You can always move if we're pressed."

"Oh, I plan on it." Rizon tried to laugh, but it hurt too much.  
  
...  
  
"Incoming vehicles, identify and give clearance for containment zone." The voice over the radio was cold and methodical. Rizon didn't wait for anyone to respond.

"Please contact Lieutenant-Commander McConnely of Port Arthur's Global Defense Coalition for clearance of civilian contractors into the containment zone." Rizon slowed the tank a few notches but kept his course steady. "We have wounded."

Then everyone started talking at once over the radio and Rizon clenched his jaw. Sometimes, they didn't know how to play by the rules in order to break them. It didn't matter too much, he guessed. He'd already said his magic words... Jack and Max could talk them the rest of the way out.

When the jabbering on the radio finally died down, the firebase command ordered them to proceed to a quarantine location near the base. Rizon was only too happy to oblige.

...

"Sir, please get on the gurney." The medic's face was turning red with frustration as Rizon walked deliberately alongside the man.

"I'll walk, thanks." _And you won't be strapping me to any damn cart like a piece of salvage!_ Rizon did his best to ignore the pain. Gray and Issa had already been rushed into medical tents. Rizon walked beside the defeated medic into the surgical tent and began stripping off his armor.  
  
"Get those damn shears away from me..." Rizon snarled as he disrobed, the nurse taking a step back as the badlander glowered at him. "I've got enough to fix in this suit without you making it worse."  
  


"I was just..." the nurse started before Rizon's medic escort silenced him with a wave of the hand and shake of the head.

Minutes ticked away and the medical personnel went about their duties while Rizon tenderly removed his armored suit and placed it beneath the operating table he stood next to. Climbing almost delicately onto the cold metal plank, Rizon took in a sharp breath that whistled through the hole in his lung. He coughed, nearly fainting from the pain as a nurse approached with a syringe and small bottle of fluid.

"Ready when you are, doc." Rizon's head lolled to one side and the tent faded into nothing.

...

_Rizon..._

The faces swirled around him, dipping in and out of the light but always too blurry to recognize or remember. He could feel the heat rising from the dunes, the summer wind calling him to his Sand Hopper, the wheeled board and sail Jack had built with him almost two cycles ago. Or maybe it was time to ride Storm Wing, the great glider he and Jack had designed...

But the bugs were everywhere, and smoke filled the visor of his helmet. Carnage... the roar of his assault carbine... she was bleeding to death and there was nothing he could do... When the bugs were dead, he found her... she was so terrified... and the blood...

He couldn't save her and he couldn't bring himself to end it quickly.

_What was her name?!_ He screamed inside his own mind. He'd only known her a week... she'd followed him with half a dozen other thrill junkies for a few parties on the dunes inside the defense perimeter. It was _supposed_ to be safe, here.

They hadn't been totally unprepared... they weren't complete fools. Fools, yes... but not totally. They had rifles and pistols among them... a few even had lightly armored desert suits.

"Rizon... please..." she begged him, but he didn't know what she wanted. She was in pain, he could see. The bile rose in his throat when his looked at her lying there... tangled and ruined beneath the head of a bowser the size of an armadillo beast. Armed men were shouting, but he couldn't hear them over the whispering of the dying woman.

"...Rizon..." He knelt down, lifting his visor so she could see his face, but her eyes were glassy and unseeing.

"I'm here..." but he choked when her name reached his throat.

"You're alive..." she gasped softly, a smile fluttering on her face. "You're alive."

She said nothing more.

...

"There was nothing more you could do, William." Shaya's voice was soft as she looked at her older brother. "A dozen bugs... I'm so sorry."

"We were too close to the edge." Rizon swallowed hard and looked at Shaya, unwept tears waiting in his eyes. "It was my fault, I lead them there."

"Don't." Shaya's mouth tightened into a line, every bit the officer she was. "Don't do that. The world is fighting for its survival. This is _bigger_ than you. They all knew the risks of leaving the city. But you're wild and love danger... and they followed you."

"I just..."

"Stop it." Shaya grabbed his shoulders so hard her fingernails bit into his skin.

"I don't remember her name, Shaya." Rizon admitted, a tear streaking down his face.

"Do you remember her face?" Shaya looked into his eyes, and for a moment she was his sister again. "Will, do you remember her smile?"

Rizon only nodded.

"Keep _that_ , then." Shaya stood up, pulling Rizon to his feet with her. "Life is for the living..."

"And today I am alive." Rizon finished the prayer.

"Today you are alive." Shaya nodded, releasing her grip on her older brother and becoming the officer of Port Arthur once more. "We'll win."

"We win and we lose, Shaya." Rizon stiffened, letting the tear dry on his face. " _Let the children call me victorious when the sun rises._ "

Shaya slapped him... hard. He could taste the blood. Tears were in her eyes as well, but she was his mother's daughter... she would not cry any more than he would.

"Don't you _dare_ die before this is over, Will." Shaya's lip quivered and she wiped her eyes before the tears could ever fall. "Don't you _dare_."

"Mother would never forgive me." Rizon forced himself to smile... so did Shaya.

...

"Rizon...?" The voice came down through the haze of the jungle, struggling into the mists of sleep to reach him. The shrill cry of raptors and insects echoed all around him, but the green of the jungle faded into gray.

"Rizon, can you hear me?" It was Ari. _Little brother-sister._

Rizon answered as best he could, fighting his way through the cloud of drugs they'd filled him with. Pain wasn't any good, but _not_ feeling seemed somehow worse. Somebody touched his arm, patting insistently as he opened his eyes.

"Ari..." Rizon's tongue was thick and clumsy, but it was not a question.

"You were in surgery for hours!" Ari whispered loudly. "Issa and Grey weren't that bad... well, they're more sick than anything and it'll be a while before they get better... but Doctor Bob nearly cut you in two!"

"Doctor... Bob?" Rizon's mind reeled as he grasped at fleeing memories. "The sword-snake?"

"Yeah." Ari's eyes fell to stare intently at the floor. "But you're ok now, right?"

"I can move, but I don't really want to." Rizon made himself remember a woman's face whose name he did not know. "Yeah, I can move."

"We were cleared through quarantine." Jack rose from a nearby chair. "Even our new friend Grey, there."

Rizon looked to the adjacent bed where Grey was stretched out. The former prisoner waved at him. Rizon nodded in reply.

"You know what a life debt is in the desert, Grey?" Rizon asked, allowing himself a smile.

"Greeeeat." Grey stared at the ceiling, letting the word drawl out of his mouth in sarcastic approval.

Ari seemed pleased by Rizon's remark, however... and even Jack smiled quietly at it.

"What about that other guy, Jon?" Rizon looked at Jack.

"Never made it in with us."

"Stole my gun." Rizon grumbled.

"He's probably dead, now." Issa chimed in from across the room, also abed.

"Same thing." Rizon struggled to sit up. The stitches complained at his movement. "When are we being debriefed... or questioned... or released?"

Jack had been waiting for the question, nodding his head in anticipation but patiently letting Rizon finish putting it to words before he answered.

"They haven't told us yet, but I've got the information we took from that last terminal at the prison... we may be able to follow _that_ trail, if we're allowed."

"Sarge and Scorch?"

"Released back to Global Defense, I suppose." Jack shrugged. "We cleared quarantine after them and they were already on their way."

_Two._ Rizon reminded himself.

"They took the vehicles as well." He heard Max say. "We'll have a hard time getting back to Port Arthur on foot."

A voice from outside filled the room... filled their minds.

" _I believe I may be able to help with that._ " Rizon basked in the sensation of the mind-speech of the Protoss. He could see that Grey was disquieted, but Rizon didn't care. He knew the "voice" as well. Almost before the warrior entered, Rizon was looking where the Protoss stood.

"Templar Hath!" Rizon smiled as the blue-gray face moved into view. "So good to see you again." Rizon lifted his fist in martial greeting... Templar Hath grudgingly obliged. Rizon knew that the templar had no love for him, though the warrior seemed to respect his tenacity.

"Think I'd be able to get a pair of those forearm blades for my new suit?" Rizon smiled up at the seasoned veteran. The Protoss' reply was a rich mix of disdain, indignation, and a smattering of amusement, Rizon thought.

" _You are welcome to try, though I doubt they will work as you would like_." Rizon frowned deliberately but let it melt back into a smile.

The silence that should have followed Hath's rebuke was instead filled with questions from everyone. Rizon remained quiet, trying to listen to every voice at once and wondering if Max was having trouble following the many conversations.


End file.
